Post-event and trends report on METEC and THERMPROCESS 2023

The central theme of ‘Bright World of Metals’, which took place with great success in Düsseldorf from 12 to 16 June 2023, was the transformation of the metals industry towards climate neutrality. The exhibiting companies and specialist conferences focused on technologies and solutions for decarbonisation, sustainability, and energy and resource efficiency in line with a circular economy across all stages of the value chains, based on the cradle-to-cradle approach. Messe Düsseldorf had already embraced this development years ago with the ecoMetals initiative. The range of products and services on offer by exhibitors at the stands of the four leading trade fairs – GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS and NEWCAST – was correspondingly diverse. A total of 63,262 international visitors accepted the invitation to the Düsseldorf Exhibition Centre. Around two-thirds of all visitors came from abroad, with roughly one-third travelling from outside Europe.

Technology pathways towards climate-neutral steel production and the necessary technologies were presented at METEC by the major metallurgical plant manufacturers Primetals, Tenova and SMS group. The steel companies’ aim is to decarbonise production across all process stages. However, the priority – and for good reason – lies with decarbonising the preliminary stage: pig iron production. Pig iron is still predominantly produced in coal-fired blast furnaces and is therefore responsible for around 85 per cent of the CO₂ emissions from the entire steelmaking process in a conventional blast furnace-converter route.

CO₂-reduction, right through to CO₂-neutrality, can be achieved in two ways: Through carbon dioxide avoidance (Carbon Direct Avoidance, CDA) and carbon capture followed by carbon dioxide storage (Carbon Capture and Storage) or utilisation (Carbon Capture and Utilisation, CCU). Both at METEC and at GIFA, the two approaches to avoiding and capturing CO₂ were discussed.

The projects undertaken by new steel companies demonstrate that decarbonisation brings with it new opportunities. Just a few years ago, the construction of new steelworks in Europe was considered unthinkable in the face of global overcapacity. In the wake of climate change, this has changed. Leading the way, the major car manufacturers and suppliers are already securing quotas of CO₂-reduced or, in future, climate-neutral ‘green steel’. The first climate-neutral steelworks, H2 Green Steel, currently under construction in northern Sweden, aims to be one of these new flagship companies. This is a flagship project that the metallurgical plant engineer SMS group can count as a success.

Competitor Primetals announced a counterpart in the south at METEC. Together with the Spanish company and Hydnum Steel, Primetals announced the construction of a climate-neutral steelworks in Puertollano, Castile. Hydnum Steel aims to become one of Europe’s leading production sites for green steel, using renewable energy and locally produced green hydrogen. The plant is designed as a minimill with a direct reduction plant for the production of solid sponge iron using natural gas, and later hydrogen, as well as electric steel produced using renewable energy. Further processing will take place on an Arvedi ESP continuous strip casting and rolling line and a cold rolling complex. Initial plans call for an annual production of 1.5 million tonnes of hot-rolled coil, including high-strength flat steel grades for the automotive industry. By 2030, capacity can be expanded to 2.6 million tonnes of hot- and cold-rolled flat steel.

Established steelmakers too – from ArcelorMittal to voestalpine – have embarked on the path to climate neutrality. Their strategies vary, as the examples of Thyssenkrupp Steel and Salzgitter demonstrate. Salzgitter is switching from the traditional blast furnace–converter route to electric steel production. The aim is to use green hydrogen in direct reduction, following the Energiron process developed by the Italian plant engineers Tenova and Danieli, to produce solid sponge iron (direct reduced iron, DRI), which is then melted into steel in an electric arc furnace – yet to be built by Primetals – with the addition of scrap. Thyssenkrupp intends to decarbonise pig iron production whilst maintaining steel production in the oxygen blast furnace converter (oxygen steelworks). SMS is constructing a DRI plant at the Duisburg site based on the Midrex process. The DRI, whilst still hot, is then liquefied in a melting furnace and fed to the oxygen steelworks for further processing – the steel-making recipes therefore remain unchanged, and Thyssenkrupp Steel can retain its ‘steel recipe book’ for the approximately 2,000 grades.

Pathways to a sustainable and forward-looking metallurgical industry were the focus of the Düsseldorf-based SMS group. Decarbonisation technologies for both existing plants (brownfield) and the construction of new plants (greenfield) were a key focus. Other topics under the company’s motto ‘Turning Metals Green’ included the circular economy and integrated lifecycle management, such as the recycling of batteries and electronic waste.

Burkhard Dahmen, CEO of the SMS Group until 30 September 2023, made it clear that there could be no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to the transformation of the international steel industry. The individual steel sites are too diverse, the local and geographical conditions too varied – for instance, in terms of iron ore quality, the availability of green electricity and hydrogen – and the respective political requirements, framework conditions and the sustainability targets set by the individual steel companies themselves are too different. “Climate protection and economic viability must go hand in hand if we are to see substantial progress,” emphasised Dahmen. The decarbonisation portfolio presented at METEC ranges from blast furnace upgrades to a CO_₂-poor ‘blue’ blast furnace operation utilising synthesis gas, through the decarbonisation of integrated steelworks by converting pig iron production from coal-fired blast furnaces to direct reduction and melting furnaces, to the construction of climate-neutral steelworks using direct reduction with green hydrogen in combination with steelproduction using renewable energy in electric arc furnaces. The electrification of the blast furnace plays a key role in the decarbonisation of existing plants. The Easymelt technology (electric-assisted syngas smelter) presented by SMS at METEC enables CO_₂ emissions to be reduced by more than 50 per cent compared with baseline blast furnace operation, and the technology can be implemented in existing integrated steelworks. The Easymelt concept is being implemented for the first time in a blast furnace at Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, India.

With its “Green Steel” portfolio, Primetals was also represented at METEC with decarbonisation technologies. Like SMS, the London-based international plant manufacturer is a licensee of Midrex’s direct reduction technology. Primetals is carrying out projects for climate-friendly pig iron production at, amongst others, the Austrian company voestalpine. For the two announced GravitHy projects in France and Finland, Primetals is constructing new ‘hydrogen-ready’ direct reduction plants designed to operate initially with natural gas and, once available, with hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources.

In collaboration with Primetals, the steelmaker ArcelorMittal is pursuing an alternative approach at its Belgian site in Ghent to decarbonise the blast furnace route using CO_₂ capture and utilisation. In the ‘ ’ Steelanol project, blast furnace emissions are converted into ethanol in a CCU plant for carbon capture and utilisation, which can then be used to produce sustainable fuels and other products. The plant, which came on stream in May, was built by Primetals in collaboration with its US technology partner LanzaTech, a leading company in the field of CCU technologies. The first ethanol produced in Ghent was presented by LanzaTech and Primetals at a joint event at METEC. Once the Steelanol plant is fully operational, it is expected to be capable of saving 125,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually and producing 80 million litres of ethanol. “The steel sector’s goal of achieving net-zero production by 2050 depends on the development of groundbreaking CCU technologies,” said Dr Alexander Fleischanderl, head of Primetals’ “Green Steel” task force. Even steelworks that have switched from more carbon-intensive production methods to new ones could, with LanzaTech’s technology, utilise a wide range of gas streams without having to make significant changes to their plants. This flexibility is of great interest for the future of the industry.

’s competitor, Tenova, has also established itself as a leader in the transformation of the steel industry with its Energiron direct reduction. In Düsseldorf, the Italian plant manufacturer presented a broad portfolio of technologies. The Italian company’s solutions extend to the complete replacement of the blast furnace-converter route with hydrogen-based direct reduction and electric arc furnaces. With Energiron technology, CO_₂ emissions from DRI production can be gradually reduced, moving from natural gas to the partial or complete use of hydrogen. As a manufacturer of electric arc furnaces, the Italian company can point to more than 2,000 references worldwide and boasts the world’s most productive DRI-fed electric arc furnace.

The plant manufacturer is presenting a second decarbonisation pathway for integrated steelworks with its ‘ ’ iBlue technology. This involves replacing the blast furnace with direct reduction in combination with an Open Slag Bath Furnace (OSBF) to produce liquid pig iron and slag, comparable to the melting furnace used by competitor SMS. The liquefied sponge iron from the DRI plant is processed into steel as liquid pig iron in the oxygen steelworks. The OSBF is, in principle, a submerged arc furnace (SAF), a specialised form of electric arc furnace, such as those used, for example, in the production of ferroalloys.

Sustainability and decarbonisation are also driving developments at the Austrian plant engineering firm Andritz. With an innovative electric furnace concept, the Andritz Metals business unit demonstrates how energy can be saved and emissions reduced in the steel industry. The Austrian plant manufacturer has developed and built an electrically heated chamber furnace for voestalpine Wire Rod Austria. With a usable volume of 100 cubic metres, dozens of 18-metre-long steel billets can be heated uniformly to 1,200 °C and then cooled again simultaneously within a single chamber. The unit, which is 100 per cent electrically heated, consumes up to 25 per cent less process energy compared with a traditional hood furnace fitted with a conventional natural gas burner, and produces no direct CO_₂ emissions on site.

Andritz sees its “Green Steel Galvanising Line” approach as a further step towards decarbonising the metalworking industry. The Green Steel Galvanising Line concept aims to replace fossil fuels with a combination of highly efficient electric radiant tubes and hydrogen burners.